After emergency landing, ramp agent discovered in cargo hold of Alaska Airlines plane

(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

published 13 April 2015

On Monday, a ramp agent was somehow locked into the cargo hold of an Alaska Airlines plane headed for Los Angeles.

The pilot of Flight 448 heard banging coming from underneath the plane right after takeoff, and immediately turned the plane around to return to Seattle. "The aircraft was in the air for 14 minutes," Alaska Airlines said in a statement. "After landing, the ramp agent was found inside the front cargo hold, which is pressurized and temperature controlled. The ramp agent appeared OK, and was transported to the hospital as a precaution." The company is investigating the incident.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.